ansaurus

Question

Answer 1

+1 A:

Update:

Code to demonstrate "alignment 1" (pure CSS) AND "alignment 2" (needs javascript) is now appended, below.

Not the answer you want, but AFAIR, you can't do that with CSS and a fluid layout.
You can center div#bricks content if you are willing to put up with this kind of alignment:
(1)

■■■■■
 ■■■

But not:
(2)

■■■■■
■■■

To do the latter, you'll need javascript to:

Measure the size of div#bricks. (ContainerSize)
Measure the size of an individual div.brick. (BrickSize)
Compute the "margin" = ContainerSize % BrickSize .
Append div.bricks style with: left: {margin / 2} .

Of course, I'd love to be proved wrong.

Code for "alignment 1":

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd"&gt;
<html>
<head>
    <title>Flexiblock, Centered Layout, CSS only</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

    <style  type="text/css">
        div#main {
        margin:0 auto;
        padding:0 50px;
        position:relative;
        max-width:90em;

        /*-- Added styles, below --
        */
        color:white;
        }

        .group:after {
        content:".";
        clear:both;
        display:block;
        height:0;
        visibility:hidden;
        }

        div#bricks {
        margin:0 auto;
        background:red;
        width:100%;

        /*-- Added styles, below --
        */
        text-align:center;
        }

        div.brick {
        background:#181c21;
        width:230px;
        position:relative;

        /*-- Deleted
        float:left;
        margin:0 5px 10px 5px;
        */

        /*-- Added styles, below --
        */
        display: inline-block;
        text-align:left;
        margin:0 2px 10px 2px;
        }

        div.brick img {
        background:#666;
        max-width:230px;
        }
    </style>

    <!--[if lte IE 7]>
    <style  type="text/css">
        div.brick {
        display: inline;
        }
    </style>
    <![endif]-->
</head>

<body>
<div id="main">
  <div id="bricks" class="group">
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
   </div><!--end #bricks-->
</div>
</body>
</html>

.

Code for "alignment 2":

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd"&gt;
<html>
<head>
    <title>Flexiblock, Centered Layout, needs JS</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

    <style  type="text/css">
        div#main {
        margin:0 auto;
        padding:0 50px;
        position:relative;
        max-width:90em;

        /*-- Added styles, below --
        */
        color:white;
        }

        .group:after {
        content:".";
        clear:both;
        display:block;
        height:0;
        visibility:hidden;
        }

        div#bricks {
        margin:0 auto;
        background:red;
        width:100%;
        }

        div.brick {
        background:#181c21;
        width:230px;
        margin:0 5px 10px 5px;
        position:relative;
        float:left;
        }

        div.brick img {
        background:#666;
        max-width:230px;
        }
    </style>

    <!-- Our javascript requires jQuery. -->
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript">
    function CenterBrickSet ()
    {
        /*---
               1. Measure the size of div#bricks. (ContainerSize)
               2. Measure the size of an individual div.brick. (BrickSize)
               3. Compute the "margin" = ContainerSize % BrickSize .
               4. Append div.bricks style with: left: {margin / 2} .

               Requires jQuery (for cross-browser use).
        */
        var iContainerWidth     = $('#bricks')[0].clientWidth;

        /*---   Get the "brick" width by comparing the left offsets of the first two bricks.  This
                accounts for margin.
        */
        var zBrickSet           = $('.brick');
        var iBrickWidth         = zBrickSet[1].offsetLeft  -  zBrickSet[0].offsetLeft;
        if (!iBrickWidth)
            iBrickWidth         = zBrickSet[0].clientWidth + 10; //-- 10 is total margin width from the style (pixels).

        var iMarginAdjust       = (iContainerWidth % iBrickWidth) / 2;

        /*-- Set each brick's left position.  Alternatively adjust the global style.
        */
        zBrickSet.each
        (
            function () {$(this)[0].style.left  = iMarginAdjust + 'px';}
        );
    }


    $(document).ready (CenterBrickSet);
    </script>
</head>

<body>
<div id="main">
  <div id="bricks" class="group">
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="brick">
     <h3>Biodesign</h3>
     <p>Fusce massa felis, laoreet eu elementum sit amet, aliquam ut magna. Etiam et tellus in nisl vehicula ullamcorper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean nulla ante.</p>
    </div>
   </div><!--end #bricks-->
</div>
</body>
</html>

Brock Adams 2010-06-13 02:40:46

I think the former example you showed would be fine for my purposes. Just not familiar with JS enough to accomplish on my own? Care to give it a whirl? Seems like the sort of solution that could be useful for many!

Fuego DeBassi 2010-06-13 22:33:59

By "former" do you mean layout "1" -- which doesn't fully do what you ask?Or layout "2" -- which seems to require javascript?The previous comment was not clear to me.

Brock Adams 2010-06-13 22:48:31

Ideally option 2 would be the scenario I'd choose--with javascript. But, I'm okay with option 1. Just not sure how to center it in such a manner beyond what I have already done.

Fuego DeBassi 2010-06-14 00:39:17

OK, I added demo pages, for both approaches, to my answer.

Brock Adams 2010-06-14 05:39:02

You rule. Fact. Going with op #1.

Fuego DeBassi 2010-06-14 22:52:03

Answer 2

A:

Try changing two of you're declarations to:

div#bricks {
margin:0 auto;
background:red;
width:100%;
text-align: center; /* Centers it's inline children. */
}

div.brick {
display: inline-block; /* Makes it act like a inline/block mutant. */
background:#181c21;
width:230px;
margin:0 5px 10px 5px;
position:relative;
}

The only problem with this code is that inline-block support is fuzzy. But you can read this article to solve this: http://foohack.com/2007/11/cross-browser-support-for-inline-block-styling/

Sam 2010-06-13 04:08:34

This code also does not do what the OP wants (see his desired image, above). It creates the 1st alignment as seen in my answer; he wants the 2nd alignment.

Brock Adams 2010-06-13 05:58:32

I'm not sure this actually does anything. Getting the same results with it? Good thought tho.

Fuego DeBassi 2010-06-13 22:32:41

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

CSS Fluid Grid Layout Problem

Update:

Code for "alignment 1":

Code for "alignment 2":

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